Rotterdam police remove pro Erdogan posters from building

Rotterdam police on Sunday evening removed several large posters featuring Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan from a property in the city, saying they had led to tensions within the community and formed a risk for people living near by.

City mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb decided to have the posters removed after they created considerable discussion on social media, ,the NRC said. Talks with the owner of the property and Turkish organisation UETD did not produce results, leading the police to intervene.

The posters had been glued to the side wall of the building, which had been closed on the orders of the police last week because it was being used for illegal gambling, the paper said.

Above the posters was the slogan ‘they talk, we take action’, which is a slogan used by Erdogan’s AK party.

There are considerable tensions within the Dutch Turkish community between supporters of Erdogan and those who oppose his regime. The Netherlands and Turkey are also currently embroiled in a major diplomatic dispute after the Dutch banned two Turkish ministers from addressing rallies shortly before the election.